Netherlands

The Dutch financial services firm ING Group said on Wednesday that it would make a final repayment six months earlier than expected of the billions of euros in state aid it received during the financial crisis, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. ING, based in Amsterdam, said it planned to make its final payment of 1.03 billion euros, or about $1.29 billion, to the Dutch government on Friday. The lender had expected to pay the final installment in May 2015.

Dutch lender Rabobank said today its net profit slipped 3 per cent to €1.1 billion in the first half of the year, due to charges related to Dutch bank SNS which was bailed out by the government. The outlook for 2014 is uncertain, the bank said in a statement, partly due to the Ukraine crisis and the possible impact on the global economy, the Irish Times reported. Rabobank said its net result in the first six months of 2014 was reduced by a one-time €214 million levy imposed on Dutch banks.

Plaza Centers N.V. Thursday said that the Dutch Court has confirmed its debt restructuring plan, following a hearing, held on July 8. Prior to this, the company had already received approval from 92 percent of creditors, who had voted in favor of the plan, RTT News reported.

Dutch banks have embarked on a public-relations offensive in an attempt to ease regulators' concerns about the risks of their large mortgage portfolios, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Dutch Banking Association, or NVB, on Thursday published a report in which it outlined that the risks aren't as high as feared. The offensive is aimed at the European Central Bank, which is expected to scrutinize the banks' home loans as part of a Europe-wide bank review and stress test that will be concluded in October.

New World Resources put forward plans for a debt restructuring and rights issue and warned insolvency could otherwise loom as the European coalminer battles low commodity prices, the Financial Times reported. The UK-listed group, which mines in the Czech Republic, said a conditional agreement involving creditors and its largest shareholder would cut outstanding gross debt from €775m to €450m, as well as making a further €185m available through equity and a new credit facility.

Air France-KLM Group, Europe’s largest airline, is getting a makeover ranging from high-end seats to bigger entertainment screens as Chief Executive Officer Alexandre de Juniac attempts a turnaround from near bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. De Juniac, who became CEO in July, is coupling luxury perks such as gourmet meals with a push to trim spending that will erase almost 10,000 jobs from 2011 into 2015. With fliers ready to spend more, investing in the customer experience goes hand in hand with savings, he said.

Leading Dutch bank ING reported on Wednesday a 22.3-percent slump in net profit for 2013, blamed special factors and said it would pursue its deep restructuring programme this year, The West Australian reported on an Agence France-Presse story. Amsterdam-based ING posted 3.2 billion euros ($4.3 billion) in net profit, down from 4.16 billion euros in 2012. Net profit for the fourth quarter of 2013 plunged by 63 percent to 539 million euros. However, this was much better than expected by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires, who had put forward 351 million euros.

British and Dutch authorities have reignited the controversial dispute over the collapse of online lender Icesave at the height of the financial crisis in 2008 by filing a lawsuit for up to IKr1,000bn (£5.6bn) against Iceland’s bank guarantee fund, the Financial Times reported. Iceland’s guarantee scheme, TIF, said on Monday that the UK was seeking IKr452bn while the Netherlands wanted IKr104bn. Both countries are also seeking interest and costs in the five-year-old dispute.

Dutch smelter Aluminium Delfzijl (Aldel) has applied for bankruptcy after failing to negotiate an energy deal, the company said on its website, the latest victim in a market plagued by oversupply and falling prices, Reuters reported. Aldel, bought by global industrial commodities company Klesch Group in 2009, applied for bankruptcy in a Dutch court on Dec. 30 and had expected a court decision on the same day, it said on its website. Spokespeople for Adel and Klesch Group were not immediately available for comment.

Dutch telecoms group KPN said on Tuesday that it had reached a tentative agreement to pay 50 million euros ($67.6 million) to settle litigation related to the bankruptcy of its former joint venture KPNQwest, Reuters reported. KPNQwest, a wholesale fibre-optic telecoms venture between U.S. phone carrier Qwest, since acquired by CenturyLink, and KPN for corporate customers, was listed in 1999 but went bankrupt in 2002 after the telecoms and technology bubble burst. The trustees accused KPNQwest of mismanagement and held its shareholders liable for damages. It had been seeking 2.2 billion euros.